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Africa XX: Nomad Tours Day 8, Stone Town Zanzibar

I’m very excited to share with you all the details of my Africa (Kenya/Tanzania) trip, and hopefully it helps you plan your own trip, encourages you to visit these places, or at the very least teaches you about another culture in another part of the world. I loved my Africa experience. To catch you up on my trip, check out all my Africa posts:

Last I left off, Erica and I were with our Nomad Tours group for our Serengeti & Zanzibar 10 Day Trek South, where we just finished traveling overland to get to Dar es Salaam where we took the ferry to Stone Town, Zanzibar. At the end of the last post I promised you a scary story and I won’t disappoint!

But first, lets set the scene. Above is our hotel room! You heard me right not only did Erica and I get a hotel room here (unlike the camping we’ve been doing the whole trip) but we also were super lucky and got a room right on the water! Look at the view off the deck, below.

So pretty! Since we were right along the beach (which can get a little dangerous at night for tourists), we also had armed guards that sat outside our room all day and night.

Paradise!

While we were getting ready for dinner we got to watch locals play a match of soccer out here at sunset.

The following morning Erica and I both signed up for a walking tour, which was one of the optional excursions on the trip. This maze of a town reminded me of Old Jerusalem, Israel and it was nice to have a guided tour.

We started at the fish market in Stone Town. Above is a live auction happening right in front of us. The fisherman auction off the fish and people buy the fish, cut it up saving some of the fish for their families, and then they move to a stall where they sell the rest of the fish for a prophet.

This was dragged through the market when we got there. It’s huge!

Above and below are photos of the different fish, squids, shrimp and seafood that vendors were trying to sell after just purchasing them from the auction. It was cool to see, but there were probably 1000 flies in that room. It was pretty smelly too with all the un-iced fish sitting around.

We also went through the meat market, which you can imagine I didn’t take photos of. Yuck, that room was disturbing.

I didn’t take may photos within the fruit and vegetable stalls in Stone Town because the vendors are pretty fussy about it. Above are some of the other Nomad Tour group members walking through the stalls.

I just love these types of winding narrow streets.

Above is our local guide teaching us about Zanzibar doors, something Stone Town is famous for.

Narrow alleys are fun to explore.

I just love the colors and textures around the city.

We cut through the Old Fort and Cultural Center in Zanzibar.

We moved over to the Shangani section of Stone Town where Freddie Mercury lived as a child. I should note that Zanzibar is like 90% muslim which means a dress code exists here, and women should not wear tank tops or other revealing clothing while not at the beach. It’s good to pack along scarves to help coverup too. I say this here because it’s also illegal to be homosexual here, which probably explains why Freddie Mercury lived here as a child but not as an adult.

We walked by the Shangani Hotel, which is where I booked a room (with the help of Norman) for my last night in Zanzibar.

In the center of Stone Town is an area where poeple sharing coffee and talking about current events. Since it’s a Muslim town, only men are allowed to partake in this tradition. They have a sign hanging about making international calls and a phone tied to the tree (above).

As part of the walking tour we went into the Christ Church which sits on the old slave market. As part of the tour they take you down into where they kept the slaves before auction (below).

They crammed tons of people in here and when the tides rose water would seep into this room located in the basement. People lived here for long lengths of time, with limited food and of course no bathrooms. Being down there was eerie and I just can’t imagine how bad it was down here.

Above is a painting of Bishop Edward Steere who worked to abolish slavery in Zanzibar. Does he look like anyone you know? Maybe John Travolta?!

Above is the Cathedral from the exterior. They are still doing restoration work on it.

After the tour ended we drove back to the hotel, picked up the rest of the Nomad Tour group and headed to the north part of Zanzibar. More on that in my next post!

WARNING– OPTIONAL SCARY STORY!

The night we stayed in Zanzibar, in the room by the ocean, there was a snake in our room. I was alone in the room from 9p-11:30p, when Erica came back to the room. At 11:30 I went to sleep and at 12:30am I awoke to 2 of the guards in our room. When I asked in my sleepy stat ewhat was going on, Erica assured me that there was a rodent in the room and they were just getting it out. My mind immediately jumped to “THERE’S A SNAKE IN THE ROOM!” Erica assured me that there wasn’t any issue and I should go back to sleep. Then, WACK! One of the guards whipped something in the corner of the room. I was within the bed netting and my glasses were on the counter so it was all a bit blurry, but it freaked me out. I had nightmares the rest of the night about snakes.

The following morning after Erica and I checked out of the room, she finally explained to me the full story. She found a snake around midnight and tried to get it out of the room herself. Realizing how dangerous this was she called in the guards who were outside our room. Knowing I HATE HATE HATE snakes, her goal was to just get it out of the room without me knowing what was going on. She shared this photo with me the next day: